On Wed, 29 Nov 2006 08:03:28 -0800
David Kimdon [off-list ref] wrote:

On Wed, Nov 29, 2006 at 04:38:56PM +0100, Michael Buesch wrote:

quoted

On Wednesday 29 November 2006 16:24, David Kimdon wrote:

quoted

On Wed, Nov 29, 2006 at 04:12:33PM +0100, Michael Buesch wrote:

quoted

On Wednesday 29 November 2006 15:34, Nick Kossifidis wrote:

Why do you say that?

There is absolutely no reason why dadwifi can't be merged into the
mainline once the hal issue is resolved. 

Last time we talked about that stuff, it was decided that
we don't want a HAL... See archives.

To be clear, that is all part of the hal issue that needs to be
resolved.  Removing the hal abstraction is not difficult for an
interested party once source for the hal is available.  The next step
in such an effort would be to add an open hal to dadwifi, IMO.

Isn't it obvious. Planning from goal through intermediate steps gives:

0 - today (raw materials)
	* softmac stack: d80211
	* open hal: ar5k
	* glue layer: dadwifi

1- put pieces together
	* d80211 + dadwifi + ar5k

2 - release working code to d80211 tree

3 - hard link dad2ifi to ar5k (one module)

4 - collapse indirect calls and refactor

5 - lather rinse repeat in public d80211 tree

...

8 - resulting in atheros driver kernel module

9 - code ready in d80211


10 - mainline integration of working driver for Atheros
     using common softmac stack

P.S. Actually, it isn't clear to me that removing the hal entirely is
a good idea.  Abstractions exist for practical reasons.  The hal
allows dadwifi to support a variety of Atheros chips without needing
to worry about the specific details of each chip.

Abstractions that deal with hardware are good. See phylib.
Abstractions that try to deal with operating system independence are 
gross.



-- 
Stephen Hemminger [off-list ref]

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